Mustard or Yellow Cross gas--Not deadly but a dangerous pest--Its
troublesome persistence--Cleaning it out by fires--Sneezing or Blue
Cross gas--Another pest--Its violent effect--The limit of gas shell
effectiveness--The need for constant vigilance and disciplinary
training.
This was pretty well the position of things in July of last year, when
the German use of gas shell underwent a radical development due to the
advent of the so-called mustard gas. So much has been written about
this gas and so many mis-statements have been made concerning it that
it is as well for the public to understand what mustard gas is, what
it can do and what it cannot do. On the one hand, it has been credited
with such impossible potency as would make it wonderful that any Allied
soldiers remain at all. On the other hand, it should be realised that
in mustard gas the Germans possess a very powerful weapon of war and
one which they are using to a very considerable extent.
In the first place let it be said that mustard gas is not a killing
gas like Green Cross, but that it is of the persistent type, like the
older lachrymators. Unlike the lachrymators, however, its effects are
not transitory and a man put out of action by mustard gas is going
to be a casualty for several weeks and perhaps longer. Mustard gas
principally affects the eyes and the lungs, but in a very strong vapour
or in contact with any of the actual liquid from the shell a man’s skin
may be burned very severely--even through his clothes. More attention
has been turned to this blistering effect of the gas than to anything
else, but as a matter of fact the blistering is of secondary importance
and in itself does not result in the loss of many men to the line. Of
course one has to be very careful. It is foolish, for example, to lean
up against sandbags that have been spattered with the liquid or to sit
in a mustard-gas shell crater. Sooner or later the skin underneath will
develop a severe and possibly extensive blister, which is very painful
and certain to last some time.
These burns are not dangerous, but they are most uncomfortable, to say
the least, especially as they are most easily produced on the more
tender parts of the skin.
Great excitement was caused at first among the Highland regiments
because the story was spread about that the Scots were particularly
susceptible to the mustard gas because of their attenuated clothing. As
a matter of fact the kilt doesn’t seem to be a source of danger at all,
and Highlanders are burned no more frequently than others. Possibly the
continued exposure of their legs hardens them.
The chief effects of the mustard gas are on the eyes and lungs. The
first thing you notice is the smell--which is slightly of garlic or
mustard--and irritation of the nose and throat. Neither effect is
enough to make you feel gassed, and the chief symptoms develop later
on. When the gas is strong it is apt to cause sickness and sometimes
actual vomiting. Later on the eyes inflame and get very sore, the lids
swell and blister, but no permanent injury to the eyes takes place,
though the victim may be temporarily blinded. The effects developed in
the lungs are equally painful and consist of severe inflammation and
bronchitis, which may take some time to get better and if not well
looked after may develop into pneumonia.
It will thus be seen that for a persistent gas, though not deadly
poisonous, mustard gas is a nasty proposition. First the gas does not
of itself force a man to protect himself. With the old lachrymators a
man either put on his mask or his eyes would smart and water so badly
that he could not keep them open. With the Green Cross and similar
gases a man either protects himself or dies. But with the mustard gas,
though the smell and irritation may be perfectly apparent, the effect
is not such as to force a man to don his mask. Yet if he does not do
so and continues to live in the vapour unprotected he will certainly
become a casualty. It may take half an hour, it may take several hours
to come on, but come on it will.
Another particular disadvantage of the mustard gas is its persistence.
It will hang about in shell holes for many hours and even for days. If
it gets into a dugout it is very difficult to get rid of it, and as
long as there is enough to produce the faintest smell or irritation of
the nose there is enough to bring on serious symptoms eventually. This
means that when it is used our fellows are forced to wear their masks
for very long stretches of time.
The mustard gas is known officially by the Germans as Yellow Cross
gas, and the shells are marked on the sides with bright yellow crosses
and bands. The paint used for these bands changes colour in contact
with the mustard-gas liquid, so that if a shell should leak it at once
becomes apparent and can be taken away and buried.
The Yellow Cross gas was first used at Ypres and bombardments there
were quickly followed by similar ones at Nieuport and Armentières.
Enormous numbers of shell of all calibres were employed, including a
new and larger size--the 8.3-inch howitzer shell, which holds nearly
three gallons of the liquid and can be fired a distance of six miles.
At Nieuport more than fifty thousand shell were fired in one night, and
equally large numbers were used in deluging the other towns. Since then
the numbers used have continually increased, especially when the boche
was preparing for an attack or expecting one of ours.
Duds that were collected showed that the mustard-gas liquid was a
chemical called dichlorethyl sulphide, a liquid that gives off its
vapour only slowly. The shell themselves were similar to the previous
gas shell except that the small one have a new type of fuse--a very
simple and quick-acting fuse which bursts the shell before it can get
into the ground, and consequently produces a very little crater. This
of course helps to spread the gas round more than if a big hole were
formed. The respirators keep out the Yellow Cross gas completely,
and the blanket protection of dugouts will also keep out the gas
splendidly. Of course if a dugout gets a direct hit with a mustard
shell there is nothing for it but to leave it empty for some days, as
the liquid cannot be removed by ventilation with either fans or fires.
A case that will illustrate what I mean was one in which a three-inch
mustard-gas shell got a direct hit on a doctor’s dugout and gassed
him and his orderlies. Some time afterward the remaining orderlies
thought they ought to send the doctor’s things down the line and went
in and got them out of the dugout. They noticed a faint smell but did
not worry about it, and soon afterward found themselves gassed in
consequence.
A fire was then placed in the dugout to clear it. In the meantime
the medical sergeant secured another dugout by clearing out some
infantrymen. In the evening the infantry felt soul-sick and wanted
somewhere to sleep, so they went into the original gassed dugout and
slept there. In the morning they all went down, gassed.
Where there has been no direct hit and the mustard-gas vapour gets
into the dugout, it can be cleared out just like ordinary gas, by
ventilation either with fans or by means of fires. For clearing dugouts
a great deal of reliance is placed nowadays on building small fires
inside. A dugout with two entrances can be very quickly cleared by
means of fires, as a through draft is produced, which carries the
gas away with it; but difficulty is frequently found in getting the
necessary fuel for the fire and in keeping the stuff handy. Bundles of
firewood and kindling material are supposed to be kept in the dugouts
ready for use; but, as has already been explained, the Tommies are
always on the lookout for combustible materials for their own fires,
and continual inspection has to be made to see that the special
supplies for ventilation are kept available. One officer told me that
he always had the supplies of wood, paper and kerosene kept in an
army-biscuit tin which was closed and sealed; because, as he said,
no Tommy would ever investigate the contents of a biscuit tin unless
absolutely forced to do so for lack of other food.
It should be realised, however, that properly protected dugouts have
given perfect immunity from the mustard gas as long as the protection
has remained intact, and a great deal of attention is being paid to
increasing the number of the protected shelters in order to give the
men the necessary rest from wearing their respirators occasioned by
the extensive use by the boche of his Yellow Cross Shell. In Nieuport
a special gas patrol was instituted for going the round of the town
to see that blanket protection of cellars and shelters was kept in
good condition, as there was always a chance that they would not be
well looked after or that the blankets had been taken down by some
enterprising Tommy for his own personal use.
Round about battery positions the most annoying feature of the mustard
gas is the length of time it persists. In the shell holes it can at any
rate be partly destroyed by sprinkling with chloride of lime. It is
rather interesting to find that in some captured German instructions
great secrecy was laid on the use of chloride of lime for getting
rid of the effects of mustard gas. The boche kept boxes of chloride
of lime in all positions where the gas shell were stored, and issued
instructions to his own troops that “the use of chloride of lime for
the protection of our own troops against Yellow Cross liquid must not
become known to the enemy. Observation of the strictest secrecy is
a matter of duty just as much now as it was previously. The troops
will be thoroughly instructed in these precautionary measures, but
nothing will be taught them as regards the nature or composition of the
antidote employed.”
During the present offensive the Germans have used very large
quantities of mustard gas, generally for holding purposes and against
our rear lines, battery positions, communications and reserves. This is
kept up for many hours in order to wear out the patience of our fellows
and weaken them for the coming assault.
Strong points that the boche does not wish to attack are also swamped
with the gas, and when Armentières were evacuated by the British,
Yellow Cross liquid was actually running down the gutters. But in
places that he intends to assault he will complete the mustard-gas
bombardment against our troops some considerable time before he
advances; otherwise his own troops would run into it and be forced to
don their respirators.
The quantities of shell used in this preparation are enormous and
supplies of the mustard gas must have been accumulated during the
winter to an unexpected extent and their manufacture proceeded with to
full capacity.
Take it altogether, Yellow Cross gas is very much more than an
annoyance, but there is no question that good discipline and thorough
appreciation and carrying out of the orders laid down for the
protection of troops have reduced the losses in very much the same
way that the screwed-up discipline reduced the losses after the first
introduction of Green Cross Shell. One of the most objectionable
features of the mustard gas is the continual care that has to be
exercised to prevent casualties. It is so easy for a man whose clothing
is slightly contaminated with gas to enter a dugout and contaminate
the whole of the interior and all its occupants. Sentries also have to
be posted to warn troops passing through or into an area that has been
bombarded with mustard gas, so that respirators can be put on. After a
cold night the officers must be continually on the watch to see whether
the vapours that rise from the warming of the earth by the morning sun
are charged with mustard gas, and to take the necessary precautions on
the slightest detection of the characteristic smell. This smell to my
mind is much more like garlic than mustard, and the use of the term
“mustard gas” is purely the origination of the Tommies themselves. As a
matter of fact, so as not to confuse the Yellow Cross liquid with true
mustard oil, efforts were made at first to prevent the stuff from being
called mustard gas. But once the British Tommy decides on a name for
anything, that name it is bound to have, and as he adopted the name
“mustard gas” for it mustard gas it will remain for all time.
The other new material that was introduced by the Germans in the
summer of 1917 and which, like mustard gas, has been in use ever
since is the German “sneezing gas.” For a long time high-explosive
bombardments were reported on many occasions to be accompanied with
violent sneezing, which at the time was laid down to the presence in
the air of undecomposed explosive from the shell. As a matter of fact
the sneezing was due to the presence inside the high-explosive shell
of bottles containing chemicals the chief effect of which is to cause
violent sneezing when small quantities get into the air. This sneezing
material, or sternutator, to give it its scientific name, in this
case was a solid which is atomised into tiny particles when the shell
bursts. Chemically speaking, it is called diphenylchlorarsine. This
material is used embedded in the trinitrotoluene of the explosive shell
in most cases, and such shells are called Blue Cross Shell, and are
marked accordingly. This is the third of the present trilogy of the
German coloured-cross gas shell. The sneezing gas is also sometimes
mixed in with the contents of the Green Cross Shell in considerable
proportions.
The idea underlying the use of this sneezing gas by the Germans was
apparently partly that of getting a gas which they thought might go
through our masks. In this of course they were disappointed, as the
respirator keeps out sneezing gas perfectly well. The other idea
underlying its use was apparently to cause such violent sneezing as to
prevent men from getting their masks quickly adjusted or to cause them
to sneeze them off if they had been put on.
This and all sorts of other tricks of the gas-shell business have been
tried out at various times by the Germans. While putting over Green
Cross or Blue Cross Shell, or both, they will suddenly accompany them
with violent bursts of shrapnel, the idea being that men will be so
busily occupied in putting on their masks or in sneezing that they will
not take the usual care in finding immediate cover from the shrapnel;
or that, on the other hand, in taking cover from the shrapnel they
will not get their masks on in the minimum time or will displace them
in their efforts to get away.
The sneezing caused by the Blue Cross Shell is a most peculiar and
violent kind. If you get the smallest dose of this stuff into your
lungs you start sneezing at once. You seem to sneeze from the very
bottom of your stomach upward, and feel as if the whole of your chest
were going to come out with it. This may continue almost continuously
for a short time; but there are apparently no after effects unless the
gas has been very strong indeed, in which case there is very painful
irritation of the whole of the throat and lungs which will produce
bronchitis.
This is the present stage of development of the German gas shell.
Whether they will add another colour to their lot of Green, Yellow and
Blue Cross Shell we do not know, but we are prepared for it when it
does come, and in the meantime he is getting as good as he gives.
It will be news to most people to realise how the gas shell are
gradually dominating the field. Some bombardments are composed entirely
of gas shell. As many as a quarter of a million have been fired on
the attacking front during twenty-four hours, and probably at least
one-quarter of all German shell of all calibres are gas shell.
It must be remembered that there are certain things that gas shell
cannot do. They cannot replace high-explosive shell for the demolition
of fortified works, for example. Nor can they be used for cutting
barbed wire previous to an advance; and the creeping barrage that
preceded the assaulting infantry cannot be made up by gas shell. An
S O S barrage in No Man’s Land, to cut up an attack, also would have
to be shrapnel and H. E. so as not to gas the defending troops. When
all these are cut out it will be realised that the proportion of gas
shell that are used against living targets must be very big indeed. It
is hardly too much to assert that at the present day, of the actual
methods of attacking men direct gas is the most important. It must be
realised also that it can become, and is likely to become, still more
important, and that the fight between the offence and the defence on
both sides will continue until the end of the war.
Since December of last year the boche has been copying a method
invented by the British for firing a large number of big drums of gas
simultaneously. These drums are used chiefly against the front-line
troops and are generally filled with pure phosgene. As each bomb
contains a gallon and a half of liquid and many hundreds are fired at
the same moment a good high concentration of gas is produced. Warning
is given by the tremendous roar from behind the German lines when the
flock of canister or rum-jar bombs starts on its way. Every man who
hears the noise gets his mask on at once, even before there is any sign
of gas; and if he does this there is little danger, as the respirators
are quite capable of dealing with even the very high concentrations
of phosgene produced. If a man keeps his head and obeys orders there
is little to fear from gas. But discipline must be high. As one Tommy
said: “You must be so well disciplined that when the gas alarm goes you
will even drop the rum ration so as to get your respirator on in time.”
Beyond that it is simply a question of carrying on the work in hand
while wearing a respirator, and this is entirely a matter of practice.